Not Your Mother’s Wizard: This is “Oz The Great And Powerful”
With Summer 2012 already going by way too fast, it’s not too soon to look ahead to Spring 2013. No, not what you’re wearing or where you’re going but what you’re seeing with the kids. No doubt you and them will be equally excited to see Disney’s fantastical new adventure movie “Oz the Great and Powerful,” which examines who exactly that man behind the curtain from the classic book and movie really is on March 8, 2013.
Taking a cue from the original film, which debuted in 1939, this version starts in black and white too. When small-time magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) pulls one too many tricks on his small-town Kansas audience he finds himself hurled via tornado into the magical land of Oz. He thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Against his will, Oscar is forced to face the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants and must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but maybe into a better man as well.
With plenty of time before “Oz the Great and Powerful” debuts, why not build up the excitement leading to it’s debut? Check out the original “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book by Frank L. Baum, then watch the original movie. And who can forget Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in the spin off “The Wiz”? Go visit one pair of Dorothy’s original ruby slippers here in Los Angeles. Film buffs will want to take their budding fans on a Sony Pictures Studio tour, formerly MGM Studios, where the original Wizard of Oz was filmed. You can even eat lunch at the commissary.
Contributed by Susanna Morgan, who while utterly professional on MomAngeles, uses Not June as her forum to “let the pearls come off.”
